Success Stories

Milos Sarcev

Milos had been a serious body builder for 15 years when in 1995 he ruptured his right acromioclavicular ligament. Milos continued to work out on his shoulder, even continuing to appear in professional shows. His problem continued to get worse, but he persisted to work through the pain.

One morning his problem took a sudden turn for the worse. "I couldn't raise my arm over my head without pain, and this concerned me greatly." Milos says, "I'd exhausted all the usual tricks of the bodybuilding trade for coping with this type of injury. I changed how I performed my basic shoulder exercises, reducing the poundage and slowing the rep speed, particularly on the negative portion of each rep, but it hurt even to pose. That's when I began calling around for doctor referrals."

Milos consulted with several orthopedic surgeons, and they all told him the same thing: that only surgery could resolve his problem. The surgeons were proposing the removal of the distal portion of his acromion, a procedure that would leave two 3 inch scars as well as deform the shape of his shoulder. This is what Milos was facing when he received the call of a friend, telling him about Active Release Techniques.

Milos describes his experience when he flew out to Colorado to be treated by the founder of Active Release, Dr. Michael Leahy. "Dr. Leahy asked me to perform a few rudimentary weight-training exercises while he observed. I did a few sets of lateral raises, incline presses and military presses. He then had me lie on the table and began performing a series of deep massage, manual manipulations on and around my right subscapularis (a rotator cuff muscle). After 5 minutes of this, he took me back to the weight room and I lifted without pain at 80% of my pre-injury capacity." Milos continues, "After one treatment I rebooked all my competitions and trained to be in the best shape of my life."

Dr. Leahy explains, "Milos was typical in many ways. The soft tissue around his subscapularis had adhered to one another. It was as if soft tissue had become welded together." Active Release was able to undo this welding, and return normal function to Milos' shoulder.